The Authorized Version

The delightful Jenny Milchman and I have been online friends for nearly five years and have the joy of supporting each other through the ups and downs of the writing life.  I have twice been a guest on Jenny's "Made It Moment" blog and we have often moaned about the vat distance separating New York and Idaho. But Saturday night we finally got to meet in person.

 I was so privileged to be part of Jenny Milchman's 20,000 mile "World's Longest Book Tour."  Yes, that's twenty thousand miles! In a car with her husband and two small children whom she is home-schooling—and stopping at almost every independent book store along the way. For a map click here.

For Jenny's stop in Boise "We're only 2500 miles into this," she says, Rediscovered Books hosted a Mystery Writers' Panel in which Jenny and I talked about the long road for publication— 11 years for Jenny, almost as long for me— the importance of telling stories you absolutely love, and the diferences in our feelings about our work: Jenny loves writing the first draft, hates rewriting. I'm just the opposite. I love research, Jenny not so. But we both love being writers.

                                                                         Jenny's family was on hand to support her,

as was my son and his family.

Thank you to Partners in Crime and Idaho Writers' Guild for your supportive turnout, too.

Jenny and I answered questions from the audience and Jenny had books to give as door prizes, one to Donna Bryant a the most ardent cat-lover present.

And now I have an  autographed copy of Jenny's Ruin Falls which I can't wait to read!